I've never seen them in Japanese packaging. Were they even released in Japan? I know that there was a larger-scale toy that Takatoku planned but never produced.

Also, this came up in chat a few months ago, and I forget who had the pic (maybe Yappy or Darren), but apparently these were going to be re-released again, perhaps as candy toys? Does anyone have any more info about this?

Once I had the Circus One, which I bought from Steve H and sold to someone, I forget who. Now I think I want one again. Yes, I am stupid.

Well, I had 3 of the Galvion Convertors toys: Monty Carlo, D-Tona, and X-something.. I thought there were only 3, at least I've never seen any others. It's possible that they were made by a small company called Mark... they made alot of the other Convertors designs that didn't come from Takatoku. The ones I remember are the spies. little guns, cameras and what not.
I've never, ever seen a Japanese Galvion toy. It's possible, and I am just GUESSING here, that Select aquired the molds or some stock of these toys that were unreleased, threw some stickers on 'em, and released them.

Convertors have always been an interesating line. It seems that just about every toy came from some Japanese line or other. If you look at the artwork, it's clearly Japanese and is along the lines of what you see on Takatoku mecha boxes.

Unfortunately, I got rid of all my Convertors 6 or so months ago. And of all of them, the Galvions were head and shoulders above the rest. Lots of diecast, complex transformations, and very solid vehicle modes.

Hhhoooo...gonna try and really reach back into the memory here, some stuff is solid, some is a bit misty...

Galvion is the show credited with killing Takatoku Toys. It seems they were already on the downslide when the '80s started, the Macross license gave them a huge temporary boost, but Orguss hurt them, and Sasuraiger really didn't do jack..by this point the Sunrise/Bandai/Takara teaming was making the big money, and given how crowded the airwaves were, overall it was Toei and Sunrise shows that were pulling in some major money, and *everything* else was fighting for scraps.

So Galvion comes along...catchy theme, chara design by 'new flavor of the time' Tagami, it was a little edgy...but it had a horrid timeslot, was running on TV Tokyo, was by...unnn, god, can't remember the production company name, was it Studio Perriot, or...Kokusai Eigasha?

anyway, it tanks. Tanks hard. Part of the problem was it was seen as 'Bryger lite', the Tagami fans weren't happy because there was no sex, the animation varied big time, from really nice to "oh my god, wasn't someone watching the new guys?!"....plus...

1984-Nintendo was growing. Videogames were starting to make a comeback. And this was having a huge impact on 'kid spending'

All kinds of stuff was crashing and burning during this time. I'm starting to think of this time as the 'Bakufu era' of anime history..

anyway..toys....Takatoku was the major funding for the show, expecting to make it up on the back end with toy sales...as far as I know, *nothing* made it to shelves in Japan, it's my understanding Takatoku went bankrupt before actual production started. Clearly *some* molds had been completed, there's been a long standing rumor of prototypes of a DX full transforming Galvion having been made (which would have been mostly plastic, but i'm sure *some* die-cast), but I've never seen pictures.

Funny thing is, according to those who watched the show 'back in the day'...the plug got pulled *just* as it was shifting into high gear, the plans and plots of the bad guys turning out to be but part of a greater plan...by invaders FROM SPACE!!

Which probably would have involved creating a Galvion Space Fighting Mode toy, no doubt... :)

Yes, the Galvion toys were definitely a step above the standard Convertors, maybe even better than the little Machine Robos in terms of complexity and metal content.

Steve, I knew you'd have something to add. Rob "I love Rock Lords" Duban was recently telling me about the interviews on the MOSPEADA DVD box set, and one of them said that Takatoku was offered sponsorship for MOSPEADA. They turned it down and expressed concerns that it wouldn't be popular. So Sausage Ranger was seen as more of a sure thing than MOSPEADA? Weird.

It's not surprising Takatoku turned down Mospeada...they were already committed to Orguss at the time, and...hm...what else was early '83...Itadakiman..no, I think that was mainly Bandai/Popy, wasn't it?..Srungle, didn't Takatoku do that? Or was that Clover?

anyway, it could be that as Takatoku was sponsering a TMS production, they weren't allowed to sponser a Tatsunoko Pro show...or the simple solution, they just didn't have the resources at the time...

And that book scan? One of the *few* bits of Galvion history, a magazine insert from a 1983 issue of My Anime..since it came out as the show was starting, it doesn't have a complete episode list or anything...

Yeah, I got that booklet..and a cel of one of the main characters too...nya... :)

There were a number of Galvion models...a company more famous for model gun kits, L/S, was the main plamodel licensee, and I *think* Imai...the pics in my old Oz Shop catalog are too small to make out logos...I count 14 kits, I remember there was *supposed* to be a full transforming kit, but I only find pics for the 'three type' in 1/100 scale (three kits, of the three forms of Galvion)

I don't know how reliable the info on that page is, Rog, but it says the molds circulated after Takatoku's demise and a company by the name of Tyco (no relation to the US toymaker) produced them without an official license. (Where'd you see the mention of Tomy?)

Also says they were sold in bags, not boxes, which makes sense because I've only ever seen them for sale loose (one came up on Yahoo Japan a year or so ago; they aren't nearly as rare as, say, those unproduced "Tread" ("Beta Fighter") toys that pop up from time to time.)

Long time reader of the site, first time poster. Galvion is a bit of an obsession of mine, I wish I had checked out the BBS when the topic was hot.

The tradeing card artwork of the Convertors figures (seen on the packageing) isn't accurite as far as the designs from the anime.

The Convertors "Montie Carlo" is basicly known in the Galvion anime as "Zector" (sometines spelled Wector) with the car mode known as "Circus-3" (The car design is basied on the American 'Vector' exotic sports car prototype...a real car, a red copy of which was raced around and crashed in the Sean Connery/ Wesley Snipes 1993 film Rising Sun). The "Monte Carlos" head (and chest plate) is different then the "Zectors" (which resembles a Macross VF-1S minus the four gun barrels).

Also those candy capsule toy re-issues look as if they are useing the exact same molds the Convertor toys used...Maybe the mostly subtle changes between the anime mecha designs and Convertors toys/artwork was in an effort to recoup the investment in the anime by reselling the toys under a different name?

Imai has released (and re-released) many of the Galvion model kits, altho I'm not sure who had the original license other then Arii molded most of the secondary mecha. I have a even dozen of these kits, 3 copies of the 1/48 Galvion (one is of the Imai re-issue from over a year ago, which includes a 1/48 Circus-1 kit), two copies of the 1/80 Zector, a couple of the bad guys and road chasers (group name for the secondary non-transformable mecha). These model kits are about all that one can find anymore that relate directly to the anime.

The 1/48 Galvion model can transform into the "road attacker" mode (sorta halfway between car and bot modes)...the 1/80 Zector kit is actualy three kits in one...a car mode kit, bot mode kit, and "road attacker" kit - comes with a little display base. the other kits I have are just plain bot kits with few if any gimicks. They are all "old school" kits, have polycaps, but need to be glued together and all that. The 1/48 galvion kit has some questionable engineering to make the transform possable (in light of modern Bandai kits).

Thanks for the links to the Japanese sites, I have pictures of that 1/48 Galvion toy, but hadn't found that particular page.

So is Zector a good guy, too? Is it a more advanced version of the Circus 1 (the main hero mecha)?

I didn't know the designs were modified for the Convertors toy releases. There's a lot about the end days of Takatoku that still doesn't make sense: the "Kingdam" issues of the Dorvack toys, these Convertors, etc.

Okay, so summing up...

Galvion never had toys released in Japan to coincide with the anime. Instead, we got 4 Convertors, and 3 of those reissued as candy toys. Additionally, there's a 1/48 Circus 1 that was sold bagged by Tyco (not the one that Americans know, though).

I think "Zector" is a good guy...might not start off that way in the show, but ends up joining forces with Galvion...course this is just a guess as I've never seen the whole show.

This link (mind the pop-up) shows what Zector looked like in the show (and what the model kits of it look like)...the only real difference in the Convertors toy is the head has a molded face, while the anime version head is more like a Macross VF-1/Megazone 23 Garland head:

About that Browning convertor... it's actually got nothing to do with the microchange/tf toy. A Japanese company called Mark put out a line of small transforming items similar to microchange. There were a gun, binoculars, walkman, and a camera. They simply stole the idea...
Anyway Select released most if not all of Mark's transforming toys under the Convertors name.

Yes, I used to have the kit for Galvion, only now do I know its name :D
You see, I've it when I'm like.. forgot how old I was.. BUT! I've 3 of these kits, and why? Because they aR sooo fragile.. I got 3 chances 'cause I'm lucky.. not any more!

Honestly, who can say FOR SURE, barring some sweet 'rise and fall of Takatoku Toys' book with a complete listing of produced and unproduced product?

(a book that needs be done, BTW...Matt, anyone in Japan you can put the bug in the ear about this? :) )

I mean, I glance at Matt's vinyl orgy pic in another thread and my mind *boggles* at the sofube insanity...for all I know *somewhere* there was a vinyl Galvion cranked out, mostly likely with mis-colored spray apps...

Me, I'm more upset that the OP theme is one of those 'lost' songs...King Records has the publishing license, there was a '45 single and a LP BGM release...but no CD...never CD...

I found a seller who had all four Convertors Super Defenders on eBay last week, and I made an offer they couldn't refuse. Ridiculously hi-res (but not necessarily high quality) pictures are in my Gallery folder:

Check out the trading cards, especially the one that specifies "breast missiles" as one car's main weapon.

I haven't de-carded the three supporting cast members yet, but I plan on doing dual mode pics of them. They're heavy, much heavier than the average Takatoku cheapies. However, the quality is pretty much what you'd expect. Diaclones they ain't.

The bad news is that Circus One ("Indy") was already off the card, because the glue that held the bubble on had completely disintegrated. Somewhere at the seller's site, it's possible that the rifle fell out and is sitting around somewhere. I'm hoping they find it.

The art on the cards ins't an accurite representation of the Galvion anime designs (there is a link above to a website with scans from the animation model sheets and such)

I've only seen about 10 minites of the show years ago...hard to tell how good it was (what I saw was in japanese)...lots of girls and raceing around...kinda reminded me of City Hunter crossed with the Smokey and the Bandit flicks...with the addition of mecha...I realy wish it would get a DVD release :D

No worries, I'm just poking fun...I still have a box of various Go-bots I'm debating doing something with, and I think there's some small low-end Diaclone thing in there too...

Oh, and the giant (about 12 inches of cloned cheap plastic crap) Gundam X 'airmaster' toy has shown up at the local 'Big Lots' store..bootleg of course, I'm debating on it just for the absurdity level....